On Top of the Throne Above All
by Mazongian
Summary: Sometimes, death truly is the preferable course to take.


How long had it been?

How long had it been since he last saw another person? How long had it been since he had been put upon this throne, given this task that he alone could fulfill?

Had it been only a few years, decades, centuries, or even millennia? Honestly, he couldn't even tell anymore.

He remembered the aftermath of the war, the life he led after being the one to slay Yhwach. He remembered marrying and being happy with his children and wife, and the long life he had. He remembered passing on in old age to the afterlife, where he was welcomed with a party from his friends and family on the other side, and him joining the Gotei 13 as Kenpachi's lieutenant of all things.

He remembered the constant fights with the captain, the countless times he put the man in the recovery ward, and having to do the squad's paperwork all the time. The constant drive to keep things running smoothly, all while maintaining a domestic life with his wife who was soon to follow him into the afterlife. He remembered the eventual event of him becoming the Captain Commander, the youngest yet, and the revolution of change he caused when taking over the reigns.

The Shinigami no longer focused on hunting hollows, ignoring the people of the Rukongai. Instead, they policed the streets of the slums, made to go out of their way to help the helpless, hopeless, and the disenfranchised. It took years, but the common people began to lose their fear of Shinigami. At the same time, the slums were slowly turned from being piss poor living spaces to quality paces, and were well on their way to becoming the paradise that they should have always been.

He remembered a lot of very vocal complaints, but they followed him regardless.

He also remembered the first of his friends that he lost. Uryu was never huge on Shinigami and we wasn't one for sticking around doing nothing, so he was the first to go back in the cycle, already at peace by the time the whole group reunited. When he became the Commander, Chad was the next to go. The gentle giant never was one of lingering regret, and he was ready for his next life.

He remembered being approached by Ichibei, being told that he was going to be the next Soul King. It was around this time that his wife, Orihime, moved on too, because they had a loud, harsh fight over it. She was upset, ever a rare event, that he was going to submit himself to that fate. She remembered seeing what became of the old King, the all but lifeless shell it became, and she didn't want him to become that way. The exact words, the barbs, thrown at each other didn't, couldn't, come to his mind, no matter how hard he tried, but he remembers her leaving. He remembers her fading away, rejoining the cycle to not have to see him waste away like that, tears streaming down her face the whole time.

He remembered the last party thrown in his honor. The captains that toasted him, the friends he made laughing and making merry, the burn of booze flowing into him, the hollow feeling he had from the whole that was ripped into his soul, and the false smile he plastered to help them not worry.

He remembered being flown up once more to the Palace, being led through the streets once more by the Royal Squad. They passed the lower town, passed each of their domains, straight up to the Soul King's Palace, his palace.

He remembered being sat down there, being put inside a barrier, then being connected to the stream of all souls, to the point that he and it were one and the same.

This was all he could remember though. His name had become lost to him, for all he was now was a king, The King. Each day passed and he reminisced over every memory he had of his friends, of his family, trying to keep evoking the good emotions they gave, to keep some part of Him grounded.

It was failing.

He knew it was failing, but he couldn't just stop. He had his friends to stay strong for, his Wife to prove wrong, his family...who was his family again?

Again he tried to ponder the time that had passed. The light never changed in his room, but he never tired, never hungered, never got to move. All he could do was waste each day away, remembering what he could of the good old days before the memories left him.

Here he sat, alone on the Throne Above All.

When he was lucky, a visitor would come to meet him. He couldn't focus on them, his mind too scattered in the stream of souls to be there, but the change in the bleary room was always nice. Sometimes it looked like they were moving in an exaggeratedly slow manner, not caring about anything, and sometimes they moved so fast that they were there, spoke at an unintelligible speed, and were gone. His connection to time was tentative, and never consistent.

Then he came, and He found that He could focus in this person.

"Aizen."

The first word to come from his mouth in what must have been ages rasped and tore from his mouth, almost hurting him. Aizen smiled, not a cocky smirk, but a genuine, happy smile.

"I̵͈̩̲̠̕c̴̰͗̃̿h̶̗͖̊̄͘ḭ̶͆̐g̸̛̯͓̈́̋̏ở̸̥̥̮͔̚" The man said, or tried to say. He couldn't tell either way, because nothing came out that sounded intelligible. "It's been a while." Ah, so he can speak. He wondered what the first bit was, but decided to pay it no mind.

""So it has." His throat healed itself as he spoke, and the scratching that talking cause went away. "You got out of Muken?" The immortal before him flashed a smug look, one befitting of his old self, to serve as his answer. "Right, dumb question." A laugh, such a foreign sound to Him, worked itself out from His lips, and a smile settled in its wake.

"I mean, twenty thousand years have gone. Of course I got out." This gave Him pause, stunning Him into silence, of which Aizen did notice. "Did you not know?"

"...No." He intoned slowly, the shock of the revelation hitting him like a sledgehammer.

Aizen looked perturbed by this, frowning slightly, before stepping closer. Even though apparently twenty millennia had passed, He still flinched from the man, His body still remembering the pain it went through because of him. "So you have no idea of what is happening down below?"

"No. It has taken all my focus on not losing all of my memories of who made me who I am." He looked at Aizen, and a glint of understanding flashed in His eyes. "For all my power, even I struggle with all the souls. It truly is lonely, being on top."

"Lonely indeed." Aizen bowed his head in His direction, stepping away from the wall. While He knew Aizen was there, He never got a good look at His old enemy. Aizen stepped out from the shadows and He sharply took in breath, surprised once again when He saw the blood stained on his clothing.

"What have you done?" He breathed, aghast at the sight of all that blood.

"I have come to free you." Aizen looked solemnly at the sword by his side. "I thought a lot while trapped in the unceasing void that is Muken, and I received many visits along the way." He looked up at Him, and sadness, such an odd emotion in the madman's eyes, met His gaze. "Early on, they talked of how unresponsive you were, that you already had the gaze the old King had when he was slain, and I knew that I didn't want you to have the same fate. You, who could stand by my side, understand my struggles, who bested me when you were no where near your peak."

"Free me how, Aizen?"

"By giving you your true death, Ḭ̸̹̖͈̏̈́̈́c̶̯̜͇̅͊͝͝h̷̖̗̤̱͎́̎ȋ̸͔̼̞͆́͒̆g̷̬̿̑͗o̸̫̠͒͐̔͜͝." Again, the sound of what must have been static assailed his ears, making him flinch after fear forced his eyes wide open. "You are not allowed even your own name any more. _Ichibei _struck it from existence, and only I can remember it, for I was outside of existence while trapped in that abyss." Ichibei's face appeared in His mind when Aizen almost physically spat out his name as if it were the most vile of curses. "In the past five millennia, no one who visited could remember you, or even knew that your name so much as existed."

"I felt so much death over all these years, felt all these souls pass through me, feel time and time again as my own family and friends' pass through me, through time I could not feel pass, without being able to properly morn, and they erase me?" Aizen didn't try to stop Him as tears rolled down his eyes. "I might as well not exist, and they expect me to just suffer like that, losing who I am as I get worn down by that unceasing stream?" Anger, grief, sadness, hollowness; a gambit of emotions coursed through His voice, and He felt himself detaching from the stream.

"Yes." The answer He truly didn't want still came to Him from Aizen, and more grief, more pain, wracked Him.

"Then do it." Though He could never say it out loud, Aizen could see the range that He went through. The heartbreak of never getting to see his family once again, the betrayal of the society that he saved and bettered for them, the rage that he would never be himself ever again. All this strife begged for a swift end, a merciful end, and Aizen met this plea with the mercy the beggar needed. There was no pain, not even for a moment, as He started to fall down. As He fell, all his lost memories came back to him like one final comfort, and he was happy in that moment.

"Goodbye, Ichigo." Aizen kneeled down beside the boy, whispering in his ear, and he relished in hearing his name one final time. "Have your final peace."

And all faded to black for the once young boy, and at the Throne Above All, one man sat alone once again, settling himself to take the burden he freed from shoulders that never should have never been burdened.

* * *

**Ugh, I wish that could have come out better. It did sound better in my head...**

**Anywho, I'm not dead. For those that wish to know, I had to pop away from Fanfiction for the past 14 months. My stepdad was terminally ill during that time, and almost all my free time was eaten up caring for him. I never had a lick of motivation to write while it was going down, and now that a month has passed since we lost him, I needed some way to get these emotions out.**

**I already have started a draft for my IS crossover second chapter, but don't hold your breath. It is fighting me.**

**Peace out, guys.**


End file.
